Tshwane yet to publish Covid spending info

The Tshwane metro was one of the municipalities in Gauteng which still needed to release its Covid-19 tender lists, as requested by the provincial government late last year.

Unlike other municipalities in the province, the Tshwane metro councillors were not present at council due to municipality placed under administration during most of the lockdown period.

This period saw municipalities procure goods and services on an emergency basis.

Councillors told Rekord that local political parties would this month request the municipal public accounts committee to release the tender lists.

They felt it was vital in determining who the beneficiaries of these tenders were.

Tshwane EFF leader MoAfrika Mabogwane, speaking to the Rekord, said his party would file an official proposal of the release of the Covid-19 list of tenders to the municipality committee this month.

This followed the EFF’s call for the release of the information at last week’s council meeting during a debate on the metro’s finances. The call was supported by other parties at the council.

“When the lockdown started, the metro was under administration. Thus political oversight was not carried out. We want to see the metro publish the tender lists just like other spheres of government so that we can review the beneficiaries,” Mabogwane said.

“We want to know which companies and service providers have benefited through the allocation of tenders here in Tshwane. We want to see whether there was any corruption.”

Mabogwane believed the emergency procurement policy from finance department, allowing municipalities to procure services and goods on urgent basis, “has given a licence to many officials and politicians to loot”.

DA Peter Sutton concurred with the EFF’s proposal.

He said during the administration, which lasted for about seven months, politicians could not provide oversight over the finances and tenders awarded.

Sutton cautioned that political stability was important for stable finances in the metro administration.

“It’s important to bring back political stability to afford the mayor and his team time to improve finances.”

Tshwane metro MMC for finance Mare-Lise Fourie said the metro had engagements with communication, marketing and events and information technology departments to make available space and structure to publish all expenditure related to Covid-19.

READ MORE: Private sector employers biggest Ters corruption sinners, says Corruption Watch

“We are positive it will be resolved within a few days and be published on the metro’s website.”

Fourie said currently the metro has not awarded a tender for the procurement of Covid-related PPE.

Fourie said information of service providers utilised and the expenditure incurred were submitted to the provincial government and formed part of a financial report published by the province last year.

In September last year, the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Lebogang Maile called for municipalities to publish their list of Covid-19 tenders after the provincial government had published its tender list.

Maile pledged to crack the whip on those implicated in wrongdoing as different departments in the province faced corruption allegations.

He sent the letters to municipality heads, instructing them to follow the steps taken by the national and provincial government in publishing the Covid-19 list of tenders. By that time the metro was still under administration.

In August last year, Maile said close to R44-million was spent in the Tshwane metro Covid-19 alleviation programmes.

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